Marky B

Reading the thread about the remake of The Ladykillers has prompted me to start a new thread on unnecessary remakes or films that should not be remade as it will be sacrilege.
Here's a list of films,in my opinion, that should never have been remade:
The Day of the Jackal;
Get Carter;
Psycho (the original was crap anyway);
The Ladykillers (although I like Tom Hanks,but Alec Guinness he ain't);
Les Diabolique;
Burt Reynold's The Mean Machine (remade by Vinny Jones and there are reports of an American remake by Adam Sandler).

Films that shouldn't be remade are:
Lawrence of Arabia;
The Dambusters (what happened to the Mel gibson intended remake).
Anyone got any other suggestions?
Ta Ta
Marky B

I am special. The heavens always open for me.

Steve Crook

Are there any necessary remakes?

What would you like to see remade - and who by?

I think a lot of these remakes are just due to the dearth of new ideas in Hollywood. Either that or any new ideas get stomped on by the accountants who prefer the idea of "Well it made money last time so if we do the same again it'll make money again"

Steve

"Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public"- H.L. Mencken

Steve Crook

PaPAS

Gibbie

Please don't equate Hollywood with America. Hollywood moguls have cash and power and pretty much have a monopoly on world entertainment.

Perhaps we should have another Tea Party, but this time in Hollywood and not Boston; and, it should be film not tea!

Remakes:

The newer Star Wars pictures should of either not been made or refilmed. They don't capture the genre that the earlier series did.

Gangs of New York was bad history. Scorsese could have taken lessons from David Lean.

The In-Laws is a comedy that should be redone. It was a comedy waiting to happen. Michael Douglas and Albert Brooks were poorly used - I would keep them for the remake.

The School of Rock is a perfect example of the kind of Hollywood movies that you are describing - banal and puerile. New everything!

Thought I'd mention American films to keep within the mind of the critique.

Gibbie

PS - H.L. Mencken had a poisonous pen!

Lord Brett

[quote]Gibbie:
Hang about, The In-Laws was a remake! There was nothing wrong with the Peter Falk/Alan Arkin original, and they should have left a lovely little film alone instead of producing a bloated replacement.

Gibbie

Yes, I forgot that, you're right!

How about Unmaking a Remake for this one.

MikeA

I'm with Steve on this one! It seems to me that history shows there have been very few remakes worth watching (I can't think of any actually, but there may be one or two). The money guys in Hollywood want a sure thing if they can get it - I don't think many of them actually care about cinema.

.....mine has gin in it.....

Lord Brett

OK, here's a worthwhile one to be going on with: John Huston's the Maltese Falcon was a remake of something called Satan Was A Lady with Bette Davis and Warren William. Admittedly it was also a superb novel by Dashiell Hammet, but there must have been other good examples.

In fact, here's another - quite a few people prefer the Bond movie Never Say Never Again to it's original version, Thunderball.

DB7

Most remakes are just failed adaptations of the source novel.

Few can say that Hagen's first talkie version of Scooge with Seymour Hicks is better than Alastair Sim's take on Dicken's novel years later.

Genevieve's Mechanic

I agree most remakes are a shame.but there was a time when turning an original into a musical produced some good to passable movies:
My fair lady/pygmalion.
the Shop around the corner/in the good old summer time
philadelphia story ,etc

I still prefer shop around the corner to the musical though.

romeo&juliet/ westside story.
homers Iliad? /oh brother where art thou?
:-0
Gm

Soapy Stevens

Even though I'm a fan of the originals I did try to keep an open mind when watching but The Assassin (La Femme Nikita) and the Italian job were very bad remakes in my view.

A good remake that springs to mind was the 1978 film of The 39 Steps starring Robert Powell.

mysteriesofedgarwallace

"Heat" was a remake of a film called "LA Takedown"

I would go as far as to say it was a verbatim copy.

On the subject of "Whatever happened to?"

Wasn't Quentin Tarantino supposed to be remaking "Man From UNCLE"?

Sgt Dudfoot

One remake that springs to mind that is almost certainly better than the original (I could be wrong as I've never seen the original!) is The Maltese Falcon. It was made 10 years before Bogart took the role, with Ricardo Cortez as Sam Spade. The fact that it is completely forgotten makes me think it was a bit limp. Anyone know better?

dar111

I saw the Ricardo Cortez version. Not as good but interesting because it was so similar. And Cortez plays Spade as a cad which made the script in some ways more believable.

Ascoyne D'Ascoyne

I have been told that a remake of "Kind Hearts and Coronets" has been contemplated. I hope it's never done. Who on earth could come anywhere near the superb performances of Alec Guinness, Dennis Price and Joan Greenwood? Any suggestions?

Selk

Jonathan Demme is taking good leave of his senses by remaking The Manchurian Candidate. The original was a great work that was bred out of the paranoia of Communist infiltration. A 21st Century version will miss that.

I have a better idea, instead of remaking good movies why not remake movies that were bad - make them better!

http://www.jerrydroberts.com/greatestfilms/

My love: Movie, movies, movies, movies aaaaaaaaaand movies. I have seen at least 4000 and recently I\'ve been revisiting the classics. I love intelligent films that challenge me, I am utterly bored by empty, bloated special effects movies.